Seattle brewing company Schooner Brewing merges with San Juan Seltzer

Drinks acquisition news : Two of Seattle’s brewery companies Schooner Brewing and San Juan Seltzer have merged into a single entity to focus on new offerings.

Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed.

San Juan Seltzer started in May 2018 with the Northwest brewed, spiked sparkling water.

The spiked seltzer company claims that its all-natural, alcoholic sparkling waters are refreshing, delicious and contain the lowest calories on the market at 85 calories, zero sugar and zero carbs, gluten-free with 4.2 % alcohol by volume per 12-ounce serving.

On the other hand, Schooner Brewing is a microbrewery located in the SoDo area of Seattle. The microbrewery makes Northwest-style ales with a reputation of IPAs and Lagers, to Barrel Aged Sours and Farmhouse Ales.

Prior to the merger, both the brewing companies were partners in a licensing relationship. Since spring of 2018, Schooner Brewing began brewing and canning San Juan Seltzer’s spiked sparkling waters at its SoDo brewery.

As a result of the merger, Schooner’s restaurant has been closed to allow the management of the enlarged brewing company to devote its entire attention to the making of craft beer and spiked water. The taproom part of the restaurant will be open though from Wednesday to Saturday from 3:00-9:00 PM and will now offer a choice of craft beers and light pub snacks like pretzels and snack mix.

“Both of these local brands produce world-class products and we have so many exciting plans in store for the future as we continue to grow here in SoDo and with our growing distributor network throughout the Pacific Northwest!

“We’ve had so much excitement over the last few months releasing fresh hop beer, participating in local events, and winning awards like ‘best American-style IPA 2018’ in SIP Northwest Magazine. We are thrilled to continue this momentum into 2019 with a renewed focus!”

Schooner said that its Head Beer Brewer Joel Stickney, an employee for nearly seven years, and the brewing team are eager to start working on creating and expanding new beer offerings both here and in Japan, an emerging market for American craft beer. The company said it will soon introduce Schooner’s first New England style Hazy IPA in the coming few weeks, followed by more releases to come.

Joel Stickney said: “With this merger of two great local companies I’m looking forward to focusing all of my efforts on creating excellent, new craft beers for current and future Schooner fans, as well as continuing to help brew high-quality San Juan Seltzer spiked sparkling waters.

“We have an incredible team assembled here that understands the ins and outs of the beverage alcohol industry and will work together to create exciting new alcoholic beverages that locals love to drink.”

San Juan Seltzer is ready to bring out its Rainier Cherry flavor, a new addition to their existing offerings inspired exclusively by fruit grown in the Pacific Northwest, including Huckleberry, Fuji Apple, Raspberry Cran, and Pure.

In the coming next few months, they are also releasing a 12-count PNW variety pack instead of the current six-count package. San Juan’s current four flavors are available at Schooner Brewing and in cans at on and off-premise outlets like the Space Needle, The Ballroom (Ballard), Pint Defiance (Tacoma), Amazon Go, Metropolitan Market, QFC, Whole Foods, Haggen Markets, and PCC Community Markets.